What's new

Achilles heel of Pakistan Army (Gen. Sharif)

FaujHistorian

ELITE MEMBER
Joined
Apr 20, 2011
Messages
12,272
Reaction score
43
Country
Pakistan
Location
Pakistan
Purpose of this essay is to identify grave threats to Pakistan army and Gen. Sharif, and hopefully start a debate as to how to address and neutralize these. Please note! These threats are a mix of religious, political, social, and geographical. And NO! we cannot solve these just be threatening them or nuking them. They all need distinct solutions tailored very specifically and delivered in very carefully optimized dosage. So here is the summary list:
1. Threats from Pakistani politicians
--- a. Altaf Hussain (MQM)
--- b. Asif Zardari (PPP)
--- c. Imran Khan (PTI)
--- d. Nawaz Sharif (PMLN)
2. Threats from bad economy
3. Threats from religious extremism
4. External threats.


Achilles heel of Pakistan Army (Gen. Sharif)
We in Pakistan are all excited and overjoyed (for the right reasons) about the triumphs and successes of our army and in particular Gen. Sharif. May God bless him with good health and long life. Amen.

Gen. Sharif's (and Pakistan army’s) lightening attack on the Talib-astard TTP has resulted in almost 100% route of gangs from Waziristan. Few pockets do remain hidden in the thick forests and steep mountains close to Pak-Af border. But the unchallenged reign of terror by the Islamists gangs has ended rather quickly.

Such a grand success was unparalleled in the region which generally known as "graveyard of empires" or more precisely "graveyard of invading armies".

Such successes would not have been possible without modern methods of warfighting and modern weapons that support the army. Primarily such weapons provide air support nay air superiority and include F-16, Cobra gunships, and transport helicopters of various kinds.

On the ground, US provided some excellent mine resistant troop carriers that have allowed Pakistan army to go in areas where no militaries have gone before at least not in large numbers.

Pakistanis while praising Pak army and Gen. Sharif must figure out the weaknesses of Pakistan army and by extension Gen. Sharif.

1. Threats from Four politicians (political parties) of Pakistan
Yes, my friends, if Pak army makes mistakes (like in the past), 4 politicians as a group or even individuals could do serious damage to Pakistan army if not (God forbid) bring it down to its knees. All of these politicians have had access to Pakistan Army's inner most secrets one time or the other. And such secrets are now being used to threaten and blackmail Pakistan army.

1A - Altaf Hussain
First on this black list, is none other than the Mafioso superemo head of Mohajir (Muttahida) nationalist movement. General Musharraf in his mad plans of destroying two main political parties of his time: PLMN and PPP made foolish deals with many smaller parties including MQM. While these parties provided much needed political support to Gen Retd Musharraf, they extracted from him very heavy price in return. MQM got free hand to attack, harass and then kill many law enforcement officers posted in Urban Sindh. This obviously is well known. What MQM did during the same time is acquire knowledge of Pakistan army's inner working by using few generals sympathetic to MQM cause. As a result, such secrets were either have been kept with MQM or portions have been revealed to Bharati intelligence. By mixing MQM's ground support and the secret knowledge, Altaf Hussain can do serious damage to Pakistan army. So when he makes threats, we must not ignore him.

1B - Asif Zardari
Even though AZ's party has been in the dog house for most of its existence. However PPP learned its lessons and started cozying up to Pakistan army during the last 20 years or so. Such a long period is enough to acquire loyalty of few retired officers and get access to inner working of Pakistan army. Asif Zardari and his minions like Hussain Haqqani have now acquired enormous clout and wealth within and outside Pakistan. And when he made that madman speech recently and said he can destroy Pakistan army (eent say eent baja dain-gay), and shut down Pakistan, he was NOT kidding. He was damned serious. And believe you me, he has put the wheels in motion and he is working on his plans. In some ways he is as munch dangerous to Pakistan army as Altaf Hussain if not more. He can use his secret knowledge of Pakistan army to humiliate Gen. Sharif and bring about the wrath of international condemnation and action against Pakistan army. I suspect he has already done something similar but didn't get enough traction through memo-gate and Bin laden type raids.

Recent leakage of secrets about Afghan Taliban's weaknesses could have been done by few who are close to Asif Zardari (possible people may include Rahman, and Haqqani).

1C - Imran Khan
Yes, Immmi Khan is immature. Yes he has a lot of appeal among youngsters, yes he set up hospitals. Yes he has an ambitious and good looking second wife.

But the biggest danger from Immi Khan comes from his deeply held belief that TTP are good guys and we should negotiate with them. Such views have been expressed by him even in July 2015. We should not consider these things as mere rants of childish bonga man. No! Immie Khan means business. He will and he is supporting TTP elements even at this stage. No! Not the dreaded supremo Fazlullah but many elements of TTP that are still hiding in various parts of KP-K province where Immie Khan controls the civilian admn and law enforcement agencies.

If you couple such secret deals between TTP and Immi khan, with his political force strong enough to destabilize Pakistan, you will know that he can do serious damage to Gen. Sharif. Recent leakage of secrets about Afghan Taliban could have been done by few who are close to Immie Khan. Possible people may include Shirin Mazari.

1D - Nawaz Sharif
Last but not least, Nawaz Sharif being a Punjabi, means that he has sympathies and direct familial relationship with many top generals. He has been toppled twice in the past Once indirectly by Pak army and once directly by General retd Musharraf. He still carries all those wounds in his heart and in his soul. Yes he has covered such things with a diplomatic cover but his nightmares about Pakistan army are very real. If you couple these with the fact that his close associates like Khawaja Asif and even Pervaiz Rasheed have had been tortured during the past military rules, you got a group of top politicians around Nawaz who will not waste time expressing their deep seeded hatred against Pakistan army in their words and in their actions. So far Nawaz Sharif enjoys a finely balanced relationship with Gen. Sharif. But the situation resulting from Immi Khan's dharna may have added more to his past nightmares.

If push comes to shove, and threatened by NAB etc., Nawaz may not want to be kicked out to Saudi this time. So he will stay in Pakistan like a cornered cat and may do some serious damage to Pakistan army and by extension Gen. Sharif.


2. Pakistan economy
Economy is the Achilles heel of any army and yes Pakistan army too. Our defense budget is tiny tiny tiny compared to the budgets (in relative terms) of our immediate AND hostile neighbor(s). This has put serious strain on Pakistan army. Just providing food and fuel, ammo and parts for operations carried out daily means literally burning precious dollars from the meager reserves held in state bank (and other banks).

Yes many on PDF will jump with joys everytime there is news of Pakistan army acquiring weapon system X or weapon system Y. But remember this! All such acquisitions are made using hard earned dollars (and IMF/WB loan dollars).

Yes we do not have printing presses in the basement that will give us an internationally accepted currency. So we have to beg and borrow money to buy few helicopters here, and few guns there.

Unless Pakistanis settle down as a nation and support Pakistan army with their hands and feet (and not just mouths), and earn dollars through tourism, and industry, we cannot go much longer with current amount of dollar reserve.

3. Religion extremism within army ranks
This fortunately is on the decline as fewer and fewer officers are supporting overtly Islamist symbols like beards etc. But it has come at very very heavy price for Pakistani army and Pakistan. Gen. Ziaul Haq’s planted little sapling of Islamism back in late 1970s. By 1980s and 90s it became a tall dastardly tree whole prickly thorns penetrated deep into Pakistani state institutions including army.

How else it became possible for the Islamists to enter and then attack extremely sensitive installations and offices without any resistance at all. Our AWACS, and our P-3s and even our GHQ wasn’t safe from Islamists. Islamists gangsters walked into these sensitive areas as if they were walking into Anarkali Lahore or Sadar bazar Karachi. That is no one was there to stop them. None at all.

These Islamists bombed our police academies, or FIA centers with no one stopping them. None of our “top of the world” intel agencies could stop them. This was only possible because our intel agencies themselves had been infected with extremist elements all in the name of Islamism.

After the APS attack, many among our security establishment finally woke up to the dastardly effects of Islamist extremism. But a year later, some of the things are still in favor of Islamist.

Lal Masjid burqaposh Mullah is still busy threatening everyone and anyone. Islamist like the one who murdered Punjab governor is still enjoying royal treatement and cell phone access even within the max security prison.

So many Taliban extremists and other Islamists have been pardoned by our courts and saved by their sympathizers within the security establishment. Thus Islamist extremism remains potent threat and in some ways Achilles heel for Pak army and thus by extension Gen. Sharif.

4. External threats.
I'll not write much about this. We all know we have enemies within Bharati gov planners. We all know there are remnants within Afghanistani security establishment that would love to burn down their OWN country so long as Pakistan army suffers. We all know Iranian Ayatollahs will never forget their failure to "Shia-ize Pakistan" since 1979. And instead Pakistani has become hotbed of anti-Shia forces since 1980s.

Hatred based on Shia Sunni divide is strong among Iranian Mullahs, that they can potentially do everything possible to bring down Pakistan army and by extension Gen. Sharif.


So my friends, now we know what the weaknesses of Pakistani army are, how do we address them?

Think, think, and think, as a Pakistan first. No, we don't need more religion, and more ethnic chauvinism. These are always counterproductive.

Rather we must support ways that Pakistan army can win at home, but more importantly Pakistan army could become a stabilizing force outside Pakistan all the way from Afghanistan to Iran to Syria. Where gangs like Daesh and Qaida must be crushed and peace be brought to humanity.

This is the only way forward, to earn good will of international citizenry and thus help us improve tourism and trade within Pakistan.

We must shame our politicians (listed above) everytime they do and say anything stupid against Pakistan army, and by extension Gen. Sharif. This is the way to save our beautiful country.

Let's join hands and be positive and be brave.

Amen

@Atanz, @Gufi, @Slav Defence, @Luftwaffe, @WebMaster, @Jungibaaz, @jaibi, @notsuperstitious, @Azlan Haider,
@ajpirzada, @DESERT FIGHTER, @AgNoStiC MuSliM, @Jazzbot, @Jf Thunder, @Hyperion, @JonAsad, @Nihonjin1051, @cirr,
@Cherokee, @Genesis, @Bamxa, @SarthakGanguly, @Cat Shannon, @Butchcassidy, @Norwegian, @Mr.UTurn, @GreenFalcon,
@Syed.Ali.Haider, @KURUMAYA, @Gazi, @Patriots, @karachiite_pacifist,@Super Falcon, @macnurv
 
.
There is an African proverb that goes like this....

"If there is no enemy within, the enemy outside can do us no harm..."


I think with our history of internal threats screwing around when we were at war should atleast have us consider this lesson ...


Bhai jaan

I agree with the first part.

And your assertion about 71.

But Siachin and Kargil? Not sure. In any case your post is well appreciated. And I won't comment on Siachin and Kargil because the thread will go in the wrong direction.

I could consider the case for Siachen, but not for Kargil though, and we are already in agreement over 1971 so -- well whatever the case maybe Ive already edited my post -- dont wanna start another keyboard war ... cuz seems like the board has seen alot of those in recent months ...
 
Last edited:
.
There is an African proverb that goes like this....

"If there is no enemy within, the enemy outside can do us no harm..."


I think after 71, Siachen & Kargil -- we ought to learn this lesson ....

Bhai jaan

I agree with the first part.

And your assertion about 71.

But Siachin and Kargil? Not sure. In any case your post is well appreciated. And I won't comment on Siachin and Kargil because the thread will go in the wrong direction.
 
.
Ridiculing the ARMY is ridiculing the government, I'm sure by now, nawaz shareef has good relations with army, he won't do anything stupid which may slightly give hope to IMRAN KHAN. So the bottom line is if the government is behind the army, no political entity can hurt the reputation of general sharif or the ARMY.
 
. . .
Unless Pakistanis settle down as a nation and support Pakistan army with their hands and feet (and not just mouths), and earn dollars through tourism, and industry, we cannot go much longer with current amount of dollar reserve.

the above solution can solve plenty of problems and issues
 
.
And what about the radicalized quarters of military itself. All the main Terrorist Attacks were either carried out or planned by the former military brains, and well the M.I and ISI have miserably in curtailing them . Moreover, the whole menace was actually a brain fart of the 80s military leadership and also elaborate about that 60% success (Chances) claim of last military regime pertaining to the operation against the Talibs.
 
.
1st of all, what he's done already is too much for us 180 million dotheads, or else he could've simply sat there and enjoyed the show saying :'' what could I possibly do''?

The threats mentioned above don't pose great threat in short term coupled with no martial law, and that's what he got : short time. All General gotta do in this time window is crank up the engine of Pakistan which he's doing efficiently. But in the end, people will have to take responsibility and keep the engine running using fuel of civilian machinery.
 
.
And what about the radicalized quarters of military itself. All the main Terrorist Attacks were either carried out or planned by the former military brains, and well the M.I and ISI have miserably in curtailing them . Moreover, the whole menace was actually a brain fart of the 80s military leadership and also elaborate about that 60% success (Chances) claim of last military regime pertaining to the operation against the Talibs.

Already discussed in the OP
 
.

Come on on man. I expect better from you. More and more I am getting disillusioned with the level of debate around here. First of all the question you posit is wrong. By asking "Who is the achilles heal of the army?" Your excluding one suspect. The army itself?

In your OP you go on to mention that Gen. Musharaf did lot of damage - I would argue almost as much if not more than the puffer of London, Altaf. When you mention Musharaf you validate my proposition. Where did Musharaf come from? The correct way to look at this is ask "who is the Achilles heal of the people of Pakistan?"

The people of Pakistan are Pakistan. They are collectively represented in the "republic" or the state. So you need to reframe the question. What are the "Achilles heal of the Pakistani republic? With that vantage point installed you then proceed to who the suspects are. You examine all with academic precison objectively. You try not to get emotion to trammel your thinking.

A few words about General Sharif. He has made enormous impact on me. He seems to be man of less bluster and more action. I love the fact that he is sat hugging the jawans one minute then next day he is in China. There appears to be seriousness and conviction about him. However we can't judge the army by just using Gen. Shareef. We might have another Musharaf next. I might add here Gen Musharaf is in my view the worse thing that happened to Pakistan since Gen. Zia.

Now I will list my "Achilles heal" of the Pakistan state in order.You will notice although I have vicreral hatred for Altaf but he will come at bottom of the list.

1) Lack of clear identity including the role of religion - Meaning we don't have any identity. We are like a rootless orphan for ever on a search of who or what he/she is, why he or he/she is here.

2) The economy - Serious overhaul is required in particular tax regime. We also need to disassemble the rentier state.

3) Our strategic confusion - The world is moving toward regional trading blocks, European Union, ASEAN etc. We need to make our minds up.
(i) Do we want to join India and make SAARC into a functioning thriving trading block?
(ii) If not do we want to go with Iran/Central Asia?


If we choose no.(i) then we need to build a wall all along the Durand Line. Throw the keys away. Install concrete towers every half a mile and shoot anything that moves.(ii) if we choose the other option build a wall on the Radcliffe line and throw the keys away - Yes I am aware of the Indian fence.

4) No more military take overs please - Slowly people like Altaf will be rooted out. Let there be elections every five years. Over time the system will refine itself. Yes, military dictators have done wonders. Men like Napoleon, Ataturk or Park Chung-hee. However Pakistan Army has not produced one such general who turned out to be a proper statesman. So can the army stay in the barracks please.

Altaf is a bastard child of one military dictator - Zia and nourished by another military dictator - Musharaf.

Trust me if we get this sorted out everything else will fall in place. Everything else we do is just pruning not pulling the weeds out. We need to address the structural problems.
 
Last edited:
.
Come on on man. I expect better from you. More and more I am getting disillusioned with the level of debate around here. First of all the question you posit is wrong. By asking "Who is the achilles heal of the army?" Your excluding one suspect. The army itself?

In your OP you go on to mention that Gen. Musharaf did lot of damage - I would argue almost as much if not more than the puffer of London, Altaf. When you mention Musharaf you validate my proposition. Where did Musharaf come from? The correct way to look at this is ask "who is the Achilles heal of the people of Pakistan?"

The people of Pakistan are Pakistan. They are collectively represented in the "republic" or the state. So you need to reframe the question. What are the "Achilles heal of the Pakistani republic? With that vantage point installed you then proceed to who the suspects are. You examine all with academic precison objectively. You try not to get emotion to trammel your thinking.

A few words about General Sharif. He has made enormous impact on me. He seems to be man of less bluster and more action. I love the fact that he is sat hugging the jawans one minute then next day he is in China. There appears to be seriousness and conviction about him. However we can't judge the army by just using Gen. Shareef. We might have another Musharaf next. I might add here Gen Musharaf is in my view the worse thing that happened to Pakistan since Gen. Zia.

Now I will list my "Achilles heal" of the Pakistan state in order.You will notice although I have vicreral hatred for Altaf but he will come at bottom of the list.

1) Lack of clear identity including the role of religion - Meaning we don't have any identity. We are like a rootless orphan for ever on a search of who or what he/she is, why he or he/she is here.

2) The economy - Serious overhaul is required in particular tax regime. We also need to disassemble the rentier state.

3) Our strategic confusion - The world is moving toward regional trading blocks, European Union, ASEAN etc. We need to make our minds up.
(i) Do we want to join India and make SAARC into a functioning thriving trading block?
(ii) If not do we want to go with Iran/Central Asia?


If we choose no.(i) then we need to build a wall all along the Durand Line. Throw the keys away. Install concrete towers every half a mile and shoot anything that moves.(ii) if we choose the other option build a wall on the Radcliffe line and throw the keys away - Yes I am aware of the Indian fence.

4) No more military take overs please - Slowly people like Altaf will be rooted out. Let there be elections every five years. Over time the system will refine itself. Yes, military dictators have done wonders. Men like Napoleon, Ataturk or Park Chung-hee. However Pakistan Army has not produced one such general who turned out to be a proper statesman. So can the army stay in the barracks please.

Altaf is a bastard child of one military dictator - Zia and nourished by another military dictator - Musharaf.

Trust me if we get this sorted out everything else will fall in place. Everything else we do is just pruning not pulling the weeds out. We need to address the structural problems.


Atanz bhai

Good points. What this post shows very clearly is that you happen to be a "QoumHistorian" (Historian of nations)

While yours truly happens to be a mere "FaujHistorian" (Historian of Military). :-)

Hope you see why I do what I do.

Will get back to specific point by point of your post.

Thank you
 
.
Achilles heel of Pakistan Army (Gen. Sharif)

1D - Nawaz Sharif
Last but not least, Nawaz Sharif being a Punjabi, means that he has sympathies and direct familial relationship with many top generals. He has been toppled twice in the past Once indirectly by Pak army and once directly by General retd Musharraf. He still carries all those wounds in his heart and in his soul. Yes he has covered such things with a diplomatic cover but his nightmares about Pakistan army are very real. If you couple these with the fact that his close associates like Khawaja Asif and even Pervaiz Rasheed have had been tortured during the past military rules, you got a group of top politicians around Nawaz who will not waste time expressing their deep seeded hatred against Pakistan army in their words and in their actions. So far Nawaz Sharif enjoys a finely balanced relationship with Gen. Sharif. But the situation resulting from Immi Khan's dharna may have added more to his past nightmares.

If push comes to shove, and threatened by NAB etc., Nawaz may not want to be kicked out to Saudi this time. So he will stay in Pakistan like a cornered cat and may do some serious damage to Pakistan army and by extension Gen. Sharif.


2. Pakistan economy
Economy is the Achilles heel of any army and yes Pakistan army too. Our defense budget is tiny tiny tiny compared to the budgets (in relative terms) of our immediate AND hostile neighbor(s). This has put serious strain on Pakistan army. Just providing food and fuel, ammo and parts for operations carried out daily means literally burning precious dollars from the meager reserves held in state bank (and other banks).


@Atanz, @Gufi, @Slav Defence, @Luftwaffe, @WebMaster, @Jungibaaz, @jaibi, @notsuperstitious, @Azlan Haider,
@ajpirzada, @DESERT FIGHTER, @AgNoStiC MuSliM, @Jazzbot, @Jf Thunder, @Hyperion, @JonAsad, @Nihonjin1051, @cirr,
@Cherokee, @Genesis, @Bamxa, @SarthakGanguly, @Cat Shannon, @Butchcassidy, @Norwegian, @Mr.UTurn, @GreenFalcon,
@Syed.Ali.Haider, @KURUMAYA, @Gazi, @Patriots, @karachiite_pacifist,@Super Falcon, @macnurv

You spent so much time in writing this wonderful analysis. But somewhere you ignored some SERIOUS key points:

1) 1-D: NS: You think NS is a threat to the Army? You are sadly mistaken. It is NS's government who's authorized the military to go take care of terrorists cleanup inside Pakistan. And that the civilian government would arrange for weapons and funding, however they have to manage it (more than likely, by taking a hit on some part of the budget or the GDP growth).

You think supporting wars is easy or the military has supermen who don't need weapons, food, jet fuel or fuel for tanks, or don't have families at home waiting for them to send them earnings, so their children's fees and the household expenses can be paid? Who is providing for ALL that? It is the civilian government.

Also, when the Army is sent against the internal threats aka, political militias like the MQM....who do you think tackles the internal blame game??? Its the Civilian government who'd provide military the internal support it needs and will go fight the political drama on media, in supreme courts and all that, and who'd cover for any mistakes made in operations like collateral damage and all.

You think the Pakistani military or any other military can handle all these sides? NO, they can only run operations till when the funding is provided. No fuel, no tank runs.... No money, no honey!!!

2) Pakistan's Economy: Which general has done anything pragmatic to grow Pakistan's economy???? Over the past 50 years, these generals haven't been able to build a second highway system inside Pakistan. The Grand Trunk road was built in the British era and that's it. So you think the Economy is a challenge that the "military" has to face or resolve?

The Economy is STRICTLY a Civilian Government's challenge and they are already working on dealing with it with great progress. AND supporting billions of dollars worth of military ops to stabilize Pakistan and get rid of the evil of terrorism!!!

The point I am trying to make is that Pakistan is now a growing country. These ideas and thoughts of 1990's and 2000's that the Army is all the institutions and the systems needed for Pakistan, need to be buried in a box and thrown into the ocean. At this point, the military and the civilians are working together FOR PAKISTAN, and that's the future of Pakistan.

A modern power, growing economy works with all its institutions working together and in harmony and full synch. That is where Pakistan is today too and it has become a great example of military and civilian rule through a system. Both Gen. Raheel and NS have a great and committed relationship. NS is growing the economy, Gen. Raheel is taking care of establishing law, peace and security from evil terrorists. Combined it means a healthy, modern, safe and economically growing Pakistan.
 
.
The biggest threat to Pakistan and the Army is Army itself. It needs to stop interfering in politics. By the way, the politicians you mentioned and their parties were created/promoted by the army/ISI. Country needs to stabilize and move on.
 
.
The Articles is written in such a manner that if Gen Sharif is reading it right now, he may be thinking of going down the line of Yakub Khan/Yahia Khan/Gen Zia and lastly Gen Musaraf!!
 
.

Country Latest Posts

Back
Top Bottom